Montenegrin
Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) denied the statement of the Municipal Election Commission (OIK) in Ulcinj that the polling station no.2 ”Hollegro” was open at 7:00am and that its opening was made according to law.
The accredited observer as well as the members of the mobile team of CeMI were the witnesses that the polling station no.2 was open with almost 20 minutes delay, that at the polling station no.2 at 7:00am there were only the president and one member out of all voting board members and that the president of the voting board called the Municipal Election Commission (OIK) to inform them about ”15 minutes delay”.
The president of the voting board did not allow PR Centre’s television crew to record the inadequate situation at the polling station which CeMI warned about.
”We use this occasion to greet the activities of the Municipal Election Commission (OIK) which, besides unnecessary denial that the place was inadequately illuminated as pointed out by CeMI, provided ”better lightning” in order to remove deficiency which CeMI previously payed attention to. The problem with this polling station is that it is located in a discoteque so the illumination is adapted to the main activity of the place, with dimmed lights and not to the place where the voting process should be carried out in a transparent way”, CeMI said in its reaction.
This organization warns that those are not single polling stations being inadequate for voting process to be conducted and as it says it will inform the public in details about this situation.
”When it comes to the polling station no.6, the president of the Minicipal Election Commission (OIK) denied his own words by saying that the ballots were counted awterwards because that activity had to be carried out significantly before the legal deadline for opening, i.e. before 7:00am. That’s the reason why the voting process at the mentioned polling station was carried out with almost an hour of delay even though the number of ballots was correct in the end”, as stated in the reaction.
CeMI explained that when the polling station is open it means that all the activities for the preparation for voting were carried out before the planned start of the voting process, i.e. before 7 am, i.e. that it is possible to vote at that moment, ”but that does not mean that somebody of the voting board members is at the polling station or that the person carries out preparatory actions after 7:00am as in this case when they were counting ballots”.
”Legal duty of all the members of the voting boards is to be at their polling stations two hours before the opening of the polling station in order to avoid delays that ocurred in the mentioned cases. Instead of misleading the public we expect that the president of the Municipal Election Commission will take more efforts in fulfillment of legal duties according to the jurisdiction of the Municipal Election Commission”, CeMI stated.
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